After winter, everyone is longing for the first warm strokes of the sun. But parents heavily underestimate the risks of spring-​sun. According to a study carried out by parent magazine Kinderzeit​.org, 90.6% of all parents do not protect children correctly, 80% overestimate the length of time their child can spend in the sun safely.

After winter our skin is not used to UV radiation anymore and very prone to sunburns. It takes a while for the skin to build up a natural protection level again. Another factor exacerbating the situation: the ozone layer, normally absorbing part of the radiation, is thinner in spring than in summer and hence dangerous rays penetrate ground levels. This results in spring being the most dangerous time to get a sunburn. Parents should not take this lightly, as according to National Health Institute, sunburns triple the risk of developing skin cancer.

According to AudienceSCAN, Parents of Children Ages 6 to 9 are 29% more likely than other adults to find advertising on social networks useful. They're active on social networks such as Facebook (85.6%), YouTube (63.5%), Instagram (50.3%) and Twitter (47.1%). On YouTube, 27.8% of this audience has viewed TV commercials withing the last six months and, over the last year, 71.2% took action after seeing TV commercials.

Survey on Sun Safety: How Parents Deal with Sun Exposure:

• Parents who forget to apply sunscreen on children during the first days of spring: 90.6%
• Parents who equip children with sun protection clothing in spring: 21.1%
• Children who caught a mild to severe sunburn this spring: 30.7%

"Children just don't sense that they are catching a sunburn. Therefore, parents must watch over their kid," explains Kay Schlaaff, founder of Kinderzeit​.org.

Parents of Children Ages 6 to 9 can be alerted about their need for sunscreen and protective clothing for their children through a number of different advertising media types. Last year, according to AudienceSCAN, 63.5% of these consumers took action after receiving direct mail ads, 60.8% reacted to radio ads they heard both online and over-​the-​air and 59.5% were driven to action by email ads. They're also 65% more likely than other adults to take action after seeing ads in movie theaters and 56% more likely to be driven to action by outdoor ads.

AudienceSCAN data is available for your applications and dashboards through the SalesFuel API. Media companies and agencies can access AudienceSCAN data through the AudienceSCAN Reports in AdMall.